


Sentimental Moments

by erikssiren



Category: We're No Angels (1955)
Genre: Angst, F/M, How is there no fic for this film?, Post-Movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 17:23:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5594638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erikssiren/pseuds/erikssiren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They dream and they wish but they never act.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sentimental Moments

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so upset there's no other fic for this film or this couple. "We're No Angels" is an amazing 1955 film starring Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov. Basil Rathbone also makes an appearance! It's a hilarious dark comedy based on a play and takes place on Christmas Eve. I love this film and if you like older movies you should definitely watch it! And from the first time I saw it, I shipped Albert (Aldo Ray) and Isabelle, the daughter of the shop keeper. They're very cute together, but also lend to a lot of angsty possibilities since he is a convict. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this and anything you may recognize I don't own (i.e. the characters from the film) and I'm not making any profit off this. Also, this had no beta reader so I apologize for any mistakes.

She wakes hearing the raspy tone of his voice and the smell of aftershave he stole from the store. She dreams of his smile and his hands on her waist.

He wakes to the echoes of music in his ears and yards of pink fabric on a petite body. He dreams of quiet nights in the garden and a life he would never have.

She stares at her reflection and hears his voice, “If crime showed on a man’s face, there wouldn’t be any mirrors.” She wonders if her only crime ever shows to her husband. If he ever suspects she sometimes wishes for a man with a stronger jaw and blue eyes.

He stares at his reflection and wonders what she saw, if anything more than man who finally paid her the attention she deserved. Wonders if she thinks of him as he does – to escape the still heat of the confines of prison to the heat of an endless Christmas Eve on Devil’s Island.

And when that time of year creeps up, they both lose themselves in the memory of fragrant flowers, stolen dinner and the spark of something impossible.

And when he does leave – released early due to overcrowding – he considers going back there, just to refresh his memories with a glimpse of her. But he knows what he’ll see – another man at her side, perhaps a baby in her arms. The thought of it makes him want to do something that would land him back in jail.

She thinks she sees him once, standing across the street one night while closing the shop. She glances through the rain and gasps at a familiar face across the street- a piercing gaze capturing her own. The shock of him causes her grip on the curtains to slip and the fabric to fall close with a snap. She scrambles to raise them, but struggles with their bulk and when she finally raises them, he’s gone. She blames it on grief- it’s so soon after husband’s unexpected death. She’s yearning for the past- for her husband, for her youth that seems so much further than ten years away.

He breathes again when the curtains fall. It had been a leap thinking she would still be there and yet there she stood. The years had been as kind to her as they had been cruel to him. He took in her dark clothes and the lines on her face and knows someone had died. Her husband, perhaps (it feels little guilt in the hope of that). A child, possibly. He takes a step forward as the curtains shift again and Joseph’s words echo in his mind, “You never really had her.”

And he could, so he leaves before the lights from the store could illuminate his face, before she could see and be disappointed in him. Left so the only thing they had, the only reliable thing they could cling to were memories. It was the only way he could ruin her, the only way she wouldn’t loathe him.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, but I was worried I would just keep going with a bunch of nonsense and it wouldn't really end so I stopped there. Please let me know what you think and leave a review!


End file.
